I love working with the young women, they are so much fun! The young women I work with are ages 12-18, and they all live in my ward at Church, which is a specific geographical area. We had 11 young women attend our camp this year, 4 young women leaders, and 2 priesthood leaders.

Our theme this year was Protect Your Peace, meaning the peace that comes from Jesus Christ, real, lasting peace.

We started out on Wednesday morning, meeting at our Church building to load up, make sure we had permission slips, etc. We left the Church building about 11:30 in the morning, and headed toward Palmer to get some gas. From there we went North on the Glen Highway headed to Lake Louise, Alaska.

We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier overlook and ate lunch about 2:00 and then continued on to the boat launch at Lake Louise. There we met the priesthood that had come earlier to bring up the supplies, most of the food and other items we needed for the week. We unloaded the cars of all the girl’s gear and loaded it onto the boat to head to the cabin. We had to make 2 trips across the lake to get everyone and everything over.

That evening was spent getting settled. The girls slept in 3 separate buildings, the old original cabin, the new bunkhouse, and and ice house used primarily in the winter for ice fishing. All 3 were very comfortable accommodations and they said they were very comfortable. The adult young women leaders slept in the main house and our priesthood leaders slept neat the back of the property in the garage.

One of the young women designed the t-shirt, and the camp director made the shirts. They were white shirts with a black outline design. The second morning was spent with fabric markers coloring in the design. While all the shirts had the basic design, it was so fun to see the variety of colors and decoration used to make it their own. All very beautiful.

That afternoon we went on a hike to a separate lake about a mile away. We walked through swamps up and down hills. It’s always fun to hike with the young women and visit with each one as we go along. We picked up rocks on our way back for our craft project that evening. We didn’t lose any shoes, and fortunately the mosquitos were not bad. That evening we used painted our rocks for the service project the next day. Each one had an inspirational quote on it.

Friday morning we spent the morning learning how to embroider, with one of our young women leading in the lesson. They spent the rest of that day, and the car ride home on and off working on their projects. It was a nice project that was easy to put down and pick up again when there was time to continue.

That afternoon we went on our service project. There is an island in Lake Louise called the Island of Hope and Healing (I think I got that right). It’s for veterans and their families to come and spend some time in the outdoors, to relax, and to heal. We picked up garbage and tidied up a bit, and then the young women took their rocks and “hid” them around the camp where those attending could happen up and be uplifted.

Every day there was lake time, and even though the ice just went out a week before, the young women spend several hours out playing in the water during camp.

We had the young women give us a morning devotional each day, and each evening one of us young women leaders would give the devotional. I was impressed with how serious they took their assignments, and how well prepared they were to teach us. All the devotionals were very nice. The devotionals centered around the theme of protecting our peace, and how to do so in this ever increasing chaotic world.

We also ate some great food. We had hamburger’s and hot dog’s the first night, with chips and fruit to accompany it. I cannot remember what the dessert was, but I know we had one. The second day we had breakfast burrito’s for breakfast, chicken Cesar salad wraps for lunch, and a baked potato bar for dinner. We also had brownies and I made everyone doughnuts. I couldn’t find my cheap biscuits so I got Grand’s Biscuits and learned they take way longer to cook, ours were a bit doughy. Friday we had pancakes for breakfast, I cannot for the life of me remember what we had for lunch, and we had Hobo dinners for dinner, with s’more’s for dessert. Saturday was yogurt parfait’s for breakfast, and a sack lunch for the ride home.

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